Questions on the Gospels, both of the Time and of the Saints, collected by the Reverend Doctor Johannes de Turre Cremata, Bishop of Sabina, Cardinal of the Holy Roman Church, of Saint Sixtus. Here they begin happily.

To the sacred and most worshipful college of the most reverend fathers, the lords cardinals of the Holy Roman Church, their humble servant, Johannes de Turre Cremata Juan de Torquemada, Bishop of Sabina, Cardinal of the Holy Roman Church, commonly named of Saint Sixtus, offers himself with humble recommendation. Reflecting upon what I might offer to your most ample lordships as a memorial from the sweat of my study, I have paid attention to the fact that I have dedicated various works to all the supreme pontiffs of our time, namely Eugenius, Nicholas, Calixtus, Pius, and Paul. Now there occurred to me the most honest custom of prelates, by which, after their refreshment, especially that which is held at dinner, they are accustomed to have conferences or disputations on the sacred letters. I have seen this custom observed among many most illustrious fathers. And it is read of the most celebrated Saint Augustine that he always delighted in reading or disputation at his table. For a disputation, for the sake of investigating the truth or so that the truth itself might become more illustrious, is licitly admitted between parties with moderation. This observance of these lords and prelates seems to me to have much honesty and utility. Indeed, it is most honest and a most beautiful order that, after we have given perishable foods to the body, we should likewise minister spiritual food to the soul. For there is no food of knowledge sweeter than doctrine. For as our Isidore says, the height of the sacred scriptures are like pasture mountains, to which when any of the just have ascended, they will rejoice to have found the refreshment of an unfailing pasture. Wherefore the most illustrious Ambrose exhorts us: "Eat the celestial foods of the scriptures. Eat so that they may remain in you for eternal life. Eat continuously so that you may not hunger. Eat so that you may be replenished. Eat so that you may belch forth the fatness of celestial words." Spiritual feasts ought not to be harmful but beneficial. Clearly, this most honest exercise of this kind is fitting for prelates to whom the Lord says, "You are the salt of the earth; you are the light of the world." For a bishop ought to possess such wisdom, as Ambrose says, that he not only sufficiently teaches the people entrusted to him, but also is able to repel the contradictions of heresies from the Catholic Church in other matters. Furthermore, the aforesaid observance is useful because it disposes the mind to the perfection of virtues. Whence John Damascene, in the fourth book, says: "It is best and most useful to investigate the divine scriptures; and as a tree is planted by the streams of waters, so the soul, irrigated by divine scripture, is fattened and yields seasonal fruit, and is adorned with deeds pleasing to God, with leaves that are always green." And again: "Let us strike, therefore, into the best paradise of the sacred scriptures, which is odoriferous, which is sweetest, which is most beautiful." Secondly, it is useful for the illumination of the intellect. For our Isidore says, "The reading of the sacred scriptures confers a twofold gift: it educates the mind in intellect, and it leads a man abstracted from the vanities of the world to the love of God." Thirdly, it is useful because through it, certain things are amputated into which an undisciplined tongue often bursts after bodily refreshment, namely words of murmuring and detraction, superfluity of speech, levity of action, and the like, all of which are avoided when, after actions of grace have been paid to God, some disputation or conference follows from the sacred letters, by which